Oops! To Strong

Racked the Pumpkin into the secondary.  It is tasting mighty good.  Has a slight pumpkin taste on the back end and a nice beer taste up front.  Added the spice to the secondary so that it should have more of the pumpkin pie taste to it.  Will taste it again in a week to see how its turning out.

So I was shooting for a drinkable 5% ABV and it turned out a little bit more than I was hoping for.  I was worried about the fermentation as it didn't seem like it was doing much the first few days, so I was going to add some more yeast.  After the test tonight, I have decided that adding yeast will not be needed.  This will be a true home brew and will be closer to 7%.  I know that many of the lighter drinkers may be deterred by the stronger beer, but it is still turning out to be a good brew.  I look forward to enjoying this with friends and family over the fall season.

Things to look out for:
- 2010 Pumpkin Spice updates- 2010 Redheaded *@#! brew ingredients are in my possession
- 2010 Winter Special- Talk of 2011 Oktoberfest brew
- Possible 2011 entry into contest (local or national)

Hey Pumpkin

The pumpkin beer is a little tough to brew, there are way more steps involved and trying to do it on a week night by myself was difficult to say the least.  Alas, it did get done.  Took some pictures of it today, looks like fermentation has stopped already and has me concerned slightly. Going to check gravity on Wednesday, hopefully it has dropped considerable.  If it has not, I may need to just throw in some more yeast in the secondary.

 Still working with an artist on the label, should have some rough drafts by Friday I am told.  Keep an eye out on the blog and I will post the final label after the initial reveal of the beer.



Apparently, the woman of my life does not agree to the bottling I was planning on and is wanting me to keg it.  The kegs are reserved for the staple beers I am working on.  I suppose I could use this to my advantage to get more kegs.  However, its not easy to carry a keg to a party and keep it cool. Plus, I wouldn't be able to show off the label.  To bottle or not to bottle is now the question.  I still think I am going to bottle as I want to share it with many people (friends, strangers, co-workers, etc.) and not have to carry a keg around with me to do that.

I am also considering doing a neck label, but don't think I really want to. However, this would give me more room on the main label for the artwork and could allow for more detail.

Things to look out for:
- 2010 Redheaded *@#! brew ingredients are in my possession
- 2010 Pumpkin Spice updates
- Talk of 2011 Oktoberfest brew
- Possible 2011 entry into contest (local or national)?

Cooling Off

It's finally starting to cool off again. This means it is time to start brewing again. First on the agenda is going to be a specialty beer. Then, I shall get back into working on a main line up for possibly a future venture.

Gee gally!! What ever specialty beer could I be brewing? Well it is that time of year were there could be many choices. I was thinking about an Octoberfest beer, however, it is a little to late to be starting that. Next reasonable choice is a pumpkin beer.

I have given it a name already without even starting the beer. I shall call it "Hessian Pumpkin Spice." Why Hessian you might ask? Doesn't everyone hate stories behind names? Okay well it's all about the story of "Sleepy Hollow." The headless horseman was in fact a Hessian solider that had is head shot off by a canon ball while helping the British in the Revolutionary War. Somehow, the story became a part of Halloween's folklore, which I can only imagine came from the story of Ichabod Craine where his hat was found next to a shattered pumpkin. Hessian's happen to be German, and most beer is known to start there. So, hence the name. Hoping that I can get a label for this beer with the headless horseman depicted on it, then the story will not be so hard to explain.

The brewing shall commence on 9/22/2010. The brew should be ready by Halloween, and most importantly a party that I shall be attending. I will be bringing most of it to the party with some comment cards to get outside the friend circle input on the many features that make up a beer. First time I will have ever done this so good or bad comments will be welcome.

So then, I shall leave this post out there for the world to see and continue on my merry way. More posts to come with the brewing activity.